


Make the Bounce!

by breadmakesyoufat



Category: Stitchers (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friendship, Romance, camsten, i am camsten trash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:20:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4470290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadmakesyoufat/pseuds/breadmakesyoufat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Speculation for the finale based on the 1x10 promo that I suppose is now canon divergent, since I've continued past the events of the finale. I am Camsten trash.</p><p>Cameron asks Kirsten to trust him. Kirsten stitches into him to try and save his life! And the aftermath.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Is anyone else dying to watch the finale? I'm dying. It's probably going to kill me.
> 
> Also this is my first time trying to write for a character as complex as Kirsten, so I'm sure she's going to seem out of character at one point or another.

“When are you going to learn to trust me? Really trust me?…Kirsten?”

Cameron’s standing with her in the hospital hallway outside of Fisher’s room, hands on his hips, trying to pull her eyes to his. He says her name again and Kirsten looks over, making eye contact.

“I do trust you. I trust you completely, you know that.”

“I don’t…” Cameron sighs, running a hand over the back of his neck. “If you trust me, tell me what is going on with you. And don’t say nothi-”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

“See? That’s…I know that’s not true.”

Kirsten looks away from him again, her gaze shifting to Fisher laying on the hospital bed in the other room.

“Is this about what you saw in the stitch today? Is that why you’ve been so…distant?” Kirsten turns back to look at him when she hears his voice stumble, sounding uncertain. “I know you, Stretch. And I know when you’re keeping something from me. And I know you’re upset. And I don’t want to push you, I’m just concerned about you and I wish you would-“

“Fine! Fine” she cuts him off, grabbing his rolled up shirt sleeve and tugging him over to sit on a couple of the waiting room chairs. Cameron lets himself be lead wordlessly, sitting down on the chair next to hers, noticing that she doesn’t pull her hand away from his arm once they’re settled. He swallows visibly and looks up to her eyes, but she isn’t looking at him, focusing on the magazines laid out on a table in front of them instead.

“When I stitched into that psychic last week, and she showed me…things that were going to happen, it really got to me.”

Her voice is controlled, and the hand on his arm is gently running the rolled up fabric of his shirt back and forth through her thumb and pointer finger. Cameron stays quiet, his eyes drifting from her face down to where her hand is tickling his arm hair and back up again. She silently reaches into her pocket with her free hand and pulls out the stone the other psychic gave Cameron, which he had passed off to her. His breath catches when he sees it, having vaguely wondered if she was going to keep it, but never imagining she would carry it around with her.

“When I was in her mind, this stone was glowing. It was the only stone on the table that was glowing like that, so I touched it, and…” she trails off, turning the stone over in her hands before closing it in her fist and looking up at him, catching him staring at her intently.

“I saw something that really scared me. I always see things when I touch objects of importance in stitches. Half the time its how we solve our cases. But this time I saw…” she sighs again and takes her hand from his arm and places it over her fist holding the stone.

“Well, I saw another one of her visions.”

She falls silent again and resumes her concentrated stare at the magazines, and Cameron finds himself reaching out to regain their physical connection, placing one of his hands over hers and gently squeezing until she looks back at him. 

“You know her visions…sure, she was right in helping us to solve her case, but its still not something you should take seriously, Stretch.”

“No, Cameron, you don’t know-“

“Then explain it to me. Please. I want to understand why this has you so upset, and help if I can.” His eyes are pleading, and he gives her an encouraging smile, making her lips turn up slightly at the edges, but they quickly fall again.

“The vision was of you. I saw you…you were in the corpse cassette. It was only for a moment so I couldn’t tell if you were breathing…” she trails off again and sees that the smile on Cameron’s face has fallen. He’s squinting at her, confusion all over his face.

“Is that why you called out my name when you were under?”

Kirsten nods silently.

“But she didn’t even know the stitchers program exists…”

“That’s why it freaked me out so badly. How could it be a faulty vision if she showed me things that she shouldn’t know exist? Cameron you looked so…cold.”

Cameron leans away from her, pulling his hand back to rub them both over his face with a forceful sigh. “And then that other woman gave me the stone and said it would keep me safe…”

Kirsten opens her hands to look at the stone again, turning it over between her fingers. They’re both silent for a few moments before Cameron touches her shoulder and guides her to turn in her chair to face him as much as she can, and he does the same. He’s gently smiling at her again, despite what she just told him, but she can’t bring herself to return it, the vision of him laying in the same place they put the murder victims before she stitches into them playing over in her mind.

“Whatever it was you saw, Kirsten, it isn’t going to happen. We solved that case, and I’m right here, safe and sound! We both are.”

Kirsten gives him a reluctant look, but Cameron stands up, pulling her up with him. “I don’t want you worrying about this any more, Princess. As freaky as that vision sounds, the case is closed, and we came out of it better than ever! Although I am touched that you got so worried about little ‘ol me” he finishes with a cheeky grin, guiding her down the hallway.

Kirsten snorts, elbowing him in the side, causing Cameron to react comically, clutching his wound as he follows her, stumbling on his feet.

He was right. Every thing was going to be just fine.


	2. Chapter 2

...Except that it wasn’t fine. In this moment, nothing was even close to fine at all for Kirsten.

“Everything seems to be running smoothly on our end. Kirsten? Where are you?”

Camille’s voice comes in through her comm loud and clear, but Kirsten doesn’t acknowledge her. Despite hesitation and in Maggie’s case, actual forbidding and threats, Kirsten managed to get Linus and Camille to help her stitch into Cameron. They had never attempted to stitch into a living person before, but considering he’s in a coma, Kirsten argued that it wasn’t going to be a whole lot different. Or so she thought, at least. It was the only way to save his life, and nothing was going to stop her from trying to get through to him.

“Kirsten, I’d love to hear back on your status. Now.”

Camille’s voice comes in again, tense and uncertain.

“Yeah, yeah I’m here.”

An annoyed huff through her comm, followed by a sigh of relief from Linus. “Of course you are. What do you see?”

Looking around, she doesn’t see much of anything. Kirsten silently tucks away a jab about Cameron’s mind being a blank slate for later, when he’s awake for her to tease.

“I don’t really see anything. It’s just sort of…bright.” Kirsten comments, turning to look behind her. Nothing there either. She takes a few tentative steps forward. “Maybe Cameron is-”

A ripple goes through her field of vision, the plain white expanse seeming to shimmer at her mention of his name, making Kirsten halt. Linus is saying something in her ear, but her entire focus is on the space around her, which has stilled once again.

“Cameron?” 

Another ripple goes through the room, stronger than the last, the brightness intensifying to the point that Kirsten has to squint to watch it roll over the ground in front of her.

“Whoa…Cameron’s vitals just spiked. Kirsten what did you-“

“I don’t know…Cameron? Can you hear me?”

Another violent ripple goes through the room, the light getting too bright for Kirsten to keep her eyes open. She squeezes her eyes closed, her heart beating faster as the light washes over her, somehow feeling warm on her skin. A few short moments later the light seems to subside, and Kirsten carefully opens her eyes.

Her breath catches when she sees that she’s in his apartment. Looking around with a sudden sense of urgency, Kirsten nearly jumps when Cameron walks right by her, going towards his bedroom. It takes her a few moments before she finds her legs to follow him.

“Kirsten, both of your vitals are going nuts, what is going -“

“Shh! I’m finally getting somewhere. Give me a minute.” Kirsten snaps as she follows Cameron around the corner into his bedroom, staring at the back of his head as if to will him to see her.

“Did she just “shush” me?!”

Paying no mind to her comm, Kirsten stops at the door, watching Cameron move around the room, turning off lights and pulling his socks off. She doesn’t even notice herself sleeping in his bed until he pauses to look at her laying there. Her eyes grow a fraction wider as she takes in the scene.

“This must be after my first stitch, when I slept over at his place…” she whispers under her breath, watching herself sleep peacefully under the blankets. All at once she can feel how Cameron was feeling at that moment, and the intensity of it startles her at first.

Uncertainty and nervousness are big ones that hit her first, and she takes a few tentative steps closer to the bed as he lays down beside her memory self, on top of the sheets, just like he said he did. What a perfect gentleman.

What he didn’t tell her the morning after is that she was sleeping on her side, facing the middle of the bed, and as she watches him get comfortable beside her now, he’s laying on his side to face her. More emotions flood over her now. Confusion, a hint of fear, and…

Kirsten’s heart lodges itself in her throat as she watches his eyes soften as they move over her sleeping face, a feeling of warmth flowing through her chest. It isn’t until this moment that Kirsten realizes her memory self laying there beside him is radiating light, no different than when she’s seen important people or objects glowing in other people’s memories. The feeling of warmth in her chest coming from Cameron’s emotions is getting stronger, and she sees him place two fingers on his lips, his eyes pausing on hers as she sleeps, and he shudders out a sigh.

Suddenly, Linus’ voice comes through her comm: “Kirsten, I hate to interrupt whatever you’re doing, but Cameron’s vitals are spiking again, and so are yours, and-“  
Linus’ voice fades into the back of her mind as Kirsten finds herself reaching out before she can think twice about it, gently touching her memory self’s arm, gasping as the flood of memories and emotions Cameron has felt regarding her flowing through her at an alarming rate. She sees and feels so many conflicting emotions, memories of them together rushing by around her and throwing her off balance, but one thing remains constant throughout them all: Kirsten is glowing in every memory he has of her, and the warmth she’s feeling in her chest is growing as the memories become more recent. 

She’s gasping for breath as she pulls away, Cameron’s memories landing them back in the lab. It takes a moment for Kirsten to catch her breath and gather her surroundings, but when she does, her heart finds its way back up into her throat. Alarms are going off all around her, scientists in the lab frantically following data on their monitors and hovering over their controls uncertainly.

“Okay seriously Kirsten what is going on?! You need to keep us-“

“Just-” She gasps out, seeing herself in the tank, and looking over to see Cameron behind his desk, his expression panicked, yelling at her to bounce from the stitch. “Just let me do this, please. I think I’m getting somewhere with him.”

Her comm falls silent as she watches her memory self pull out of the stitch, gasping for air and clumsily getting herself out of the tank. She watches with baited breath as Cameron all but jogs out from behind his desk, brushing off Linus and approaching memory her, glowing brightly as ever.

“Kirsten, are you okay?”

Kirsten finds herself moving closer to him at the sound of her name on his lips, feeling a deep ache in her chest that she knows isn’t coming from Cameron’s emotions. She watches silently as her memory self approaches him, uttering the two clues that would help them solve her first stitchers case. Her memory self reaches up at touches Cameron’s cheek, and Kirsten feels her heart lurch when she sees herself kiss him. 

She doesn’t remember any of this, but knows she only did it because of the emotions clinging to her from the stitch, so instead of paying herself any mind, Kirsten watches Cameron’s face for a reaction. He seems shocked, which makes total sense. He hasn’t even known her a day yet. But as the kiss lingers, Kirsten notices his face relax, and his mouth gently responds to her kiss for a moment. The emotions coming off of him in that instant are a mixture of confusion, shock, but also warmer feelings, like happiness, acceptance, and even longing.

Kirsten finds she can’t look away, even as they pull apart and she collapses into his arms. The memory starts to dissolve around her, the white room coming back into view, and Kirsten calls out his name again, suddenly desperate to stay in this moment.

Another ripple passes over around her, entirely dissolving the last of the lab memory. Kirsten looks around desperately, scared she’s just lost whatever connection she was building up between herself and his subconscious.

“Cameron! You’re in a coma, and I’ve stitched into you. Can you hear me?”

More ripples.

“I think you can hear me” she whispers, feeling warmth surrounding her, even without one of his memories playing around her. “Cameron, this is real. You’re in real danger of not coming out of this coma whole if you don’t wake up soon. I came to help you”

A few long moments pass, and Kirsten is just starting to fear that she’s lost him again when memories start to flood in around her from all sides. Only, these aren’t acting like any memories she’s ever been in. They’re almost hazy, hard to see unless she focuses hard on one at a time, and they’re fleeting, moving around and past her, being replaced with new ones almost immediately. She picks one closest to her and walks towards it, focusing hard on it to try and make it clearer. She sees Cameron and herself in his apartment sitting on his couch, except…

Kirsten freezes, the slightly hazy vision in front of her rippling and threatening to leave as she stands just outside of it, as if looking in a window. They’re curled up together on the couch watching tv together. But that never…-

The vision blurs out of focus and disappears entirely before she can utter a thought on the matter, her legs unresponsive. Turning slightly she catches hold of another blurry scene as it passes by, vaguely seeing Cameron and her at a grocery store, seemingly arguing about which watermelon to buy. That vision slips by as quickly as it came.

“These aren’t memories…” she whispers, catching sight of another vision passing by. They’re sitting at a restaurant together, laughing over a pizza.

“Kirsten?” her comm buzzes in her ear and the pizza restaurant fades from view, and Kirsten finds herself sad to see it go.

“What?”

“You’ve been in there too long, you need to make the bounce soon. How’s he looking?”

Kirsten’s cheeks heat up as a vision of them kissing heatedly in his room passes her by. She holds it long enough to watch Cameron back her up against the closed door to his bedroom and run a hand up her shirt before letting it go. These aren’t memories at all, they’re dreams, or wishes…thoughts he’s had about them. This is getting too personal. She doesn’t want to find out how he feels about her like this. About what he wants for them…

“I think he knows I’m here. I’m trying to talk to him, but I don’t know how much is getting through…” she mutters, watching more of Cameron’s dreams about them together float around her. “I experienced some of his memories, and now I think I’m in his subconscious. I’m seeing his…dreams, I think…”

“You’re going to get stuck in there if you don’t bounce out in the next 60 seconds, Kirsten.”

“Okay, okay. Just…hold on.”

Kirsten closes her eyes for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts.

“Cameron?”

Another ripple, and the visions that were surrounding her fade away.

“Listen to my voice, Cameron. Please, I need you to…” she trails off, not sure where she should be looking or directing her words. “I need you to know that this isn’t a dream, and you’re not asleep right now. You really are in a coma, and we transported you to the lab so I could stitch into you and try to pull you out.”

She pauses, watching the space around her shudder. “You need to wake up, Cameron. You know what happens to the human brain if it stays in a coma for too long. You’re getting dangerously close to that point and I don’t know what I would do if-“

Her voice cracks and she closes her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“I know I’m not very good with emotions, or talking about them. At all. I didn’t mean to, but I saw some of the dreams you have of us. Together. And I saw how brightly I shine in your memories…”

A feeling of dread comes over her, and she knows its from Cameron. “I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry into your personal thoughts. They just…came to me.”

“30 seconds, Kirsten”

“I just…I want you to know that…” she sighs, trying to steady her mind and find the right words. “if you were to stitch into my mind, you would see that in my memories of you, you’re glowing just as brightly as I am in yours.”

“15 seconds”

“And I know I’m not an easy person to be around, and I know that I can seem cold and unattached, but you…”

“Kirsten!”

“…I need you…”

A tear runs down her cheek as she types in her code to bounce out, noticing the strongest ripple yet distorting the entire space around her.

“Cameron” she whispers his name as she hits enter, gasping as she’s ripped out of his consciousness and wakes up in the tank, the lights of the lab seemingly dull compared to the glow of Cameron’s mind, but her head pounding viciously.

Camille is at her side in an instant, and Kirsten accepts her helping hand out of the tank. She goes right for Cameron once she finds her footing, lifting the top of the box he’s in and looking down at his face. If she didn’t know any better she’d think he was just peacefully sleeping. Her hands are shaking as she rests them on each side of his head, gently combing the hair there.

The machines he’s hooked up to are beeping steadily, but her focus is on his face.

“Cameron?”

A few drops of water from her hair and nose drip down onto his skin, leaving tracks as they travel down to the base of his neck. She stares down at him, her eyes conveying desperation. “Cameron, can you hear me?”

She keeps trying to bring him out of it until she’s shaking from her wet body in the cold lab, and Camille brings her a blanket, leading her over to Cameron’s desk to drink some coffee with reluctance from Kirsten.

After a few minutes, the entire lab erupts into chaos.

Kirsten drops her coffee mug when the alarms start going off, letting it shatter on the floor. The blanket Camille wrapped her in falls from her shoulders as she runs back to Cameron’s side. 

“Cameron?!” she cries, looking from his sleeping face up to his monitors, which are flatlining. The medical professionals are closing in from all sides, yelling numbers at each other and pulling out equipment to try and bring him back. Kirsten barely notices what’s going on around her, all she can see is Cameron’s face, and all she can hear is the steady drill of his heart monitor shrieking. Her hands are shaking again, hovering over him, and she can’t bring herself to close the distance and touch him.

“Cameron!” her voice trembles and cracks as she screams his name. She can’t breathe. Her ears are ringing and she can’t breathe. Her vision is getting blurry with tears…blurry like the dreams she saw in his mind. The dreams of them. Tears run down her face.

She screams his name again and suddenly hands are on her. She doesn’t know whose. She fights them but finally relents when Camille forces her way into Kirsten’s field of vision, saying how she needed to make room for the doctors so they can try to save him.

Kirsten nods numbly and backs up to Cameron’s desk, stepping on the broken coffee cup and cutting her foot open without reaction. Her eyes never leave him, even as a man with a defibrillator partially blocks her view of his torso. She’s shaking and barely feels Camille reach out and hold her hand, whether its for her benefit or Camille’s, Kirsten doesn’t know, but she squeezes back fiercely.

“Please…” she finds herself whispering, watching as the doctor makes contact on Cameron’s chest, the shock lifting him off the table briefly. “Please…”


	3. Chapter 3

They nearly lose him entirely. By some miracle Cameron’s vitals pop back to life, his heart beating regularly and his breathing returning to normal. They hook him up to all kinds of life support equipment and transport him back to the hospital. Kirsten gets Maggie to follow the ambulance in her car, barely pausing long enough to change out of her stitcher suit. Camille offers to come by later with some dinner, knowing Kirsten won’t be leaving once she gets back to him, and Kirsten thanks her.

She spends days glued to his bedside, only leaving briefly on the first night when the nurse refused to let her stay past visiting hours. When they found Kirsten sleeping in the small chair near his bed during their 3am rounds, they just brought her a blanket and let her stay despite hospital rules.

She talks to him every day, trying to pull him out of it with her voice. She strokes his hair, which has been looking uncharacteristically flat since he was admitted, and holds his hand while she sleeps, wanting to feel the instant he shows any signs of waking up.

It’s nearly a week before he opens his eyes.

As Kirsten’s luck would have it, she isn’t there when he first wakes up. Camille had come by half an hour earlier and convinced her to go home long enough to have a shower and eat a hot meal. Kirsten was reluctant, but Camille assured her she would stay with him until she gets back and tell her the moment anything changes. Also the mention of take out that isn’t vending machine food and a warm shower eventually swayed her. She’s barely gone half an hour when Cameron wakes up.

After calling for the doctor and watching a few nurses disconnect most of the life support from Cameron, Camille gently informs him of what happened since he fell into his coma.

“Where is she? Is she okay?!” Cameron’s voice is rough and dry, and Camille silently reaches over and hands him the glass of water he’s been nursing since he woke up.

She smiles, immediately knowing who he’s asking for. “Kirsten’s fine, all things considered. She’s been pretty much living here since you were admitted so I convinced her to go home and have a shower and a meal. It’s been hell trying to get her away from you long enough to take care of herself for the last week.”

Cameron sighs, his shoulders visibly relaxing. “Stitching into me was a horrible idea. It was untested, I never would have let her risk herself like that for me.”

Camille smiles softly again, leaning over to grab her phone off his bedside table. “Believe me, we tried to talk her out of it, but you know how she gets when she sets her mind on doing something. And it was you, Cameron.” He looks over at Camille at this, his eyes puzzled. She laughs under her breath as she opens up a blank text message to Kirsten. “I probably should leave the explaining to her, but I will say this: You didn’t see her when she found out you were in a coma after the accident. She was inconsolable, miserable…I’ve never seen her so upset. And when you flatlined on that table in the lab after she stitched out of you…”

Camille’s voice trails off, the text message on her phone still blank, her fingers hovering over the keys. Cameron is still looking at her intently, but his eyes look wet and his jaw is shaking ever so slightly. 

“You scared all of us, Cameron. But I think you nearly killed her.”

Cameron’s eyes widen a fraction at this and he looks away, a tear escaping and trailing down his face. Camille sighs and starts to type out a message to Kirsten, telling her that Cameron is awake. They both hear as it sends, and Camille puts her phone in her pocket.

“I told Kirsten you’re awake, so she’ll probably be racing over here already. I’ll go tell Linus and the rest of them too, but I’ll wait and give you two some time alone first. I think you have some stuff to work through.”

Cameron nods again, silent, but reaches out and takes one of Camille’s hands in his. She looks up at him and sees that his eyes are still wet, but he’s smiling at her.

“Thank you for telling me all of that. And thank you for…I guess, thank you for keeping her safe while she was stitched into me. For looking out for her when I couldn’t.”

Camille smiles and squeezes his hand gently before getting up and making her way to the door. “I _am_ pretty good at the helm, if I do say so myself.”

Cameron chuckles and watches her go, relaxing back into his pillow when she’s out of sight. If he’s being honest with himself, the prospect of seeing Kirsten has him excited, but also anxious. She was inside his head, and he doesn’t remember any of it. What if she saw something he didn’t want her to, or worse? He has no idea how navigating through the mind of someone who isn’t actually dead works…

Before he has too long to really start to worry about it, Kirsten comes racing down the hall and into his hospital room. Cameron looks up and they make eye contact the moment she comes through the door, and he feels his abused heart leap into his throat at the sight of her. 

She’s out of breath like she ran the whole way here, and her hair is wet, up in her signature pony tail and dripping onto the shirt she’s wearing. It takes him a moment to realize it’s one of his shirts she borrowed once after a case when her clothes were covered in dirt, and he gave her a change of clothes while they had some dinner together at his apartment before she went home. He never thought twice about it, but thinking back on it now, she never had given that shirt back to him.

Her eyes are wide while she takes him in, and he can see tears forming. Cameron smiles at her, his happiness at seeing her overwhelming him.

“Hey Stretch” he says, trying to sound upbeat, but it comes out more like a rough whisper, his throat still dry from disuse.

His voice seems to break her out of whatever trance she was in because a strangled noise comes up from her throat, followed by a suppressed sob and she’s quickly walking over to his bedside, dropping her bag on the chair she’s been living on for the past week and reaching for his head with both hands. Her hands are in his hair and her eyes are scanning over his face almost frantically, taking him in. Cameron can feel more tears welling up in his eyes at her reaction to him, slowly lifting one of his hands to hold her wrist gently, rubbing soothing circles over her pulse point with his thumb.

Kirsten’s silently crying, tears running down her cheeks while she blinks, trying to clear her vision so she can keep looking at him.

“Shhh…Kirsten, it’s okay. I’m okay.” Cameron whispers, reaching up with his other hand to hold her waist, pulling her so body in closer to his. He shifts over to make room and gently tugs her down so she’s sitting on the side of his bed, his hand moving to rub her back. He can feel every shaky breath she’s taking and it hurts his heart to see her so upset, knowing it’s his fault.

“Cameron…” her voice is thick as she finally averts her eyes from his, closing them firmly. “I saw you die. I thought you weren’t coming back.”

Cameron lets out a shaky sigh and leans his head forward to connect their foreheads, sniffling softly. “I know, Kirsten, I’m so sorry…” he trails off, rubbing more tiny circles on her wrist and lower back, trying to comfort her. “I’m here now though, I’m okay. You made sure of that.”

She pulls away just enough to look at him, a small grimace folding her eyebrows in at the middle before she looks down at his chest. “I almost killed you, Cameron…I shouldn’t have tried to stitch into you-“

“No, you’re right, you shouldn’t have.”

Her eyes widen and she looks back up at him, her frown deepening. “Cameron, what-?”

“Camille told me what you did. It was way too reckless, Kirsten! We’ve never tested what would happen if you stitched into a living person, and I would never have allowed you to risk your life like that…what if you’d gotten stuck in there and they had to rip you out? You could have gotten yourself killed!” 

His voice was firm, his face showing sadness and anger, but mostly worry. Kirsten slowly takes her hands back from his head and crosses them over his chest, and Cameron has to make a conscious effort not to show his immediate disappointment at the loss of contact.

“I didn’t know what else to do! You were going brain dead and I thought if I stitched into you maybe I could help you break out of it and wake up! I couldn’t just sit by and watch you waste away-“

“Kirsten-“

“No, listen to me. I know it was wrong, but it’s not like you were able to give me your input or consent at the time. And we were careful, and I had the whole team there to back me up if anything went wrong. I had to do something, Cameron. And don’t try to tell me you wouldn’t have gone this far to try and save me because I know that’s not true.” Her voice is firm now, and she’s giving him a look that is challenging him to tell her off again. Cameron sighs and rubs the back of his neck with one hand, the other one finding its way back to her side to comfort her again.

“I would have done the same for you, if I could, you’re right. That doesn’t mean I love the idea of you putting yourself at risk for me. I don’t like the idea of you risking yourself for anyone, if I’m being completely honest…” his voice trails off and he looks back up at her.

Kirsten’s silent for a few moments before reaching out to place her hand over his free one, her posture visibly relaxing again. 

“Do you…remember anything from the stitch?”

Cameron finds her eyes, shaking his head. “No, I don’t remember anything after the accident…until I woke up here.”

Kirsten nods slowly, averting her gaze to the small table beside his bed. Cameron observes her for a few moments with baited breath. When she doesn’t continue, Cameron sighs slightly.

“I’m sorry if you saw something that…upset you, when you were stitched into my mind.” Kirsten looks back over at him, making Cameron’s cheeks heat up slightly. The fact that she could undoubtably tell in the harsh hospital room lighting didn’t escape him and made his blush run a little deeper.

Kirsten’s hand squeezes his gently, and she’s smiling at him when he finally gathers the courage to look at her in the eyes.

“I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to see…what I saw. I know you didn’t give me permission and I could feel how upset you were that I was roaming around in your subconscious…”

Cameron’s body goes tense at this, his eyes closing tightly. “Subconscious? Like…more than just memories?”

“Yeah. I saw some of your memories, like a normal stitch, but I also saw…well, dreams, I guess. Or thoughts you were having, or have had…I’m not entirely sure, but I know they weren’t memories because we’ve never-“

She cuts herself off abruptly, realizing too late the road she’s walking down. Cameron opens his eyes cautiously and can see that her face is a little red too. An awkward silence falls over them, and Cameron is suddenly very aware of how close they are to each other, and how her hand is still clasping his and his other hand is still resting on her hip. All at once this is too much for him. She was in his head and she saw something and she knows. _She knows._ And not because he manned up and told her how he feels, but because she went into his head to try and save him and all she found in there was-

“I just…I didn’t know….”

Her soft whisper cuts off his train of thought, but before he can open his mouth to ask her what she’s talking about, Linus comes flying through the door, followed closely by Camille and Maggie.

“Dude! Oh my god!”

Linus is on the other side of the bed in a flash, both hands on Cameron’s head much like Kirsten did when she came into the room. Kirsten gently pulls away from him and stands up, making Cameron miss her contact immediately, but Linus is all he can see at the moment.

“Hey Linus, mind giving me some space?” His voice comes out distorted, Linus’ hands on his cheeks squeezing his mouth in a pucker.

“I was so worried dude! You were dead!”

Cameron manages to extract Linus’ hands from him with a huff, but sees that his friend has some unshed tears in his eyes, so he reaches up and pulls him into a hug. When they pull away, he sees that the three girls are standing in the doorway smiling at the display, but his eyes are inevitably drawn back to Kirsten.

She smiles at him before announcing that she’s going to go to his apartment and pick him up some clothes and things for when he gets released, and that they should meet back here for dinner later before walking out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm dying from that finale. that was just cruel. but also ALL THAT CAMSTEN. I can't believe we actually got her roaming around all his memories of her and realizing he loves her and I cannot. I just cannot.
> 
> Anyways, one more chapter after this to wrap it up! I was hoping to get this done before the finale, but I didn't, and as it turns out the finale gave me the motivation to finish this up.


	4. Chapter 4

Cameron gets released from the hospital a few days later. They kept him to be sure his heart was functioning normally again, and because he’d been under long enough they wanted to do some tests for brain damage. After receiving a perfectly clean bill of health, Cameron made use of the bag Kirsten had brought him and got changed before heading out.

There was no one there visiting him when he was discharged, so Cameron didn’t bother to call anyone to pick him up. He was actually looking forward to the walk back to his apartment, as a chance to stretch his legs, and get some fresh air for the first time in days.

Before long, he found his thoughts drifting back to Kirsten again. Since they were interrupted by their friends after he’d woken up, she’d been back to see him, but never on her own. Their first conversation since he’d woken up was still reeling in his mind, and he found himself dreaming about her wandering around in his head, opening virtual doors and seeing all his daydreams about her and them and how much he loves her… Not knowing what she had stumbled into was nearly driving him mad, but the fact that she still visited and was talking to him in the days since he woke up was giving him hope that whatever she did see hadn’t scared her off.

The walk home was pleasant, but he was winded when he got up to his apartment, a reminder that he was in a coma or stuck in a bed for almost two weeks altogether. He quickly showered and put his sweats and a baggy shirt on, combing his hair up in its usual fashion and putting his glasses on before heading to the kitchen to assess the damage. To his surprise, his fridge wasn’t full of rotten food. It was mostly empty except for some condiments and soda, and some leftover takeout from the restaurant above the lab. Kirsten must have cleaned out his fridge of all the old stuff when she came to get him some clothes. The thought warms Cameron’s heart as he reaches in and takes out the the leftovers, transferring them to a plate to heat in the microwave.

He’s nearly done his meal when someone knocks at the door. Pausing the Star Wars movie and putting his food down on the kitchen island, Cameron makes his way over to the front door and opens just as Kirsten is raising her hand to knock again. Her hair is down and she’s wearing his borrowed (stolen?) shirt again, making his stomach flutter. They stare at each other for a few long moments before Kirsten adjusts her bag on her shoulder and walks around him and into the apartment wordlessly. 

“Hey to you too, Ace” Cameron says with a sigh and closes the door behind her, turning and following her into the kitchen. Kirsten surveys the room, taking note of his half eaten meal and the movie paused on his tv, then turns to look at him as he leans on the counter behind her.

“Why didn’t you call me? I went to the hospital to visit you and you weren’t there.”

Her tone is neutral, but the way she’s clutching the strap of her bag with one hand tells Cameron she’s a little upset with him.

“I just…I wanted to walk home. Get some air. Stretch my legs.” His answer doesn’t relax the tension in her shoulders so he keeps trying. “I’m sorry Stretch, I figured you’d be at work with everyone else so I just came home rather than call for a ride.”

“It’s fine, I just…I may have been a little worried when I came by and your room was empty, is all.” She sighs and turns, taking off her bag and putting it on the kitchen island beside his food. She’s rubbing her forehead when she turns back around, and looks exhausted. “I know that’s not rational because you’ve been awake and okay for days and you got yourself home fine, I just-“

“Hey” Cameron breathes out gently and takes a few steps towards her, reaching out and delicately holding her elbow with one hand. She lets her hands drop from her face at his touch and looks at him, and the emotion in her eyes actually makes him suck in a breath.

Kirsten just stares back, her gaze shifting from one of his eyes to the other, and then quickly down to his lips and back up again. If he’d blinked at that moment he would have missed it. Cameron isn’t sure what’s going on, but he can feel his heart beating in his chest and he wouldn’t be surprised if she can hear it too. Before he can think to say anything, Kirsten’s arm is shifting under his hand and her lips are on his.

His eyes are wide open for the first few seconds while his brain desperately tries to catch up with what’s going on. Kirsten brings both her hands up to cradle his neck tenderly, his arm falling limply to his side when her elbow leaves his hand. It isn’t until a small sigh escapes Kirsten that he catches up to her, taking a step closer and melting his hands to her sides, gently pulling her body to mould against his with shaking hands. Her lips are just like he remembers them from her first stitch, soft and warm, but so much more emotionally fulfilling, because this is Kirsten kissing him, not some residual emotion from a memory of a dead man she stitched into. She gently nibbles on his lower lip, causing a deep groan to rumble in Cameron’s chest, making his face burn red immediately, but Kirsten doesn’t seem to mind, nipping him again before bringing one of her hands down to his chest to hold a handful of his shirt.

It’s over much too soon in Cameron’s opinion, but he lets her go when Kirsten gently places both her hands on his chest and pushes away, just enough to look at him. He keeps his hands on her hips, breathing a little heavy as he stares into her eyes. Her cheeks are slightly flushed and her lips are parted, making him swallow a lump in his throat and quickly lick his lips.

“What…what was that?” he finds himself whispering, memorizing the way she feels under his fingers and the pressure from her hands on his chest and the look in her eyes.

Kirsten tilts her head slightly and smiles at him. “A kiss.”

Cameron lets out a breathy sigh. “I know…I know that. I mean…why?”

Kirsten glances down at his lips again before looking into his eyes again. “I didn’t know. Before I stitched into your mind, I had no idea how you felt about me.”

Cameron feels a cool wave wash over him and takes half a step away from her. Kirsten looks puzzled and tries to hold him to her but he takes another small step back until they aren’t quite touching anymore.

“What exactly did you…see, in my mind? It’s been bothering me and I want to know.” His voice is restrained, but he doesn’t stop her when she reaches out and takes one of his hands.

“Nothing bad, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Kirsten says with a hint of a joke in her tone, but Cameron remains silent so Kirsten keeps going. “I was everywhere. All the memories that came forward involved me…I had no idea. And then I stumbled into your subconscious and I saw…” she trails off, looking down at their joined hands. Cameron can feel his cheeks going red and has to remind himself to breathe while he waits for her to continue. “I saw how you think about me. About us. What it would be like if we were together…going on dates, grocery shopping…And it just made everything so clear to me.”

Cameron lets out a breath he was holding and looks at her, his expression almost pained. “That’s what I was afraid of. Are you sure you’re not just…not just feeling residual emotions from my memories? Or my…my dreams?” He nearly chokes out his last question, emotion rising in his chest.

“What? Cameron, no. That’s not what I meant.” She takes a step forward and cradles his one hand in both of hers firmly. “I just meant…I didn’t know how you felt about me before. You know emotions are hard for me to understand sometimes, but with you…I don’t know, they’ve always made more sense. And seeing us together in your mind and knowing how you felt, it just…it clarified things for me.”

Cameron is still looking at her like he’s been wounded, and she knows she still hasn’t explained it right.

“I…Cameron, I care about you more than I’ve cared about anyone in…too long. You make things clear to me. Those dreams you’ve had of us, I’ve had dreams like that too, I just wasn’t sure what it meant until I was inside your mind and could feel how it was affecting you and made the connection. I’ve never felt like this for someone else, so I had no point of reference until you gave it to me!” She takes a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. “When you flatlined, I thought I was losing you, and it was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced. There was this pit growing in my chest and I couldn’t make it stop until you were breathing again and it scared me so badly…I don’t know exactly when I started needing you so much, but I do, and I need you to understand that this…this is real. This is me.”

Her eyes are wide and she’s squeezing his hand more firmly, desperate to make him understand. Cameron’s eyes have also grown wide, and a smile is forming on his lips. Lifting his free hand, he gently buries it in her loose hair, making her eyes flutter closed, and takes a step closer to her, leaning down and kissing her soundly and instantly calming all of her worries. Kirsten melts into his arms again, pulling him closer almost immediately so she’s pinned between him and the kitchen island. Her hands find their way into his hair, running it through her fingers before settling them on his shoulders. They stay like that for many minutes before Cameron gently pulls away, making Kirsten whimper almost inaudibly, causing Cameron to chuckle under his breath.

“I can’t believe…” he starts in a quiet voice, leaning in so their foreheads are resting together, “I mean I never thought…” he chuckles breathily again and pulls away to look into her eyes, a big smile breaking out over his face.

Kirsten laughs and smiles back, wrapping her arms around him and nuzzling her face into his shoulder. “Me too” she whispers as Cameron pulls her in tighter.

 

“I’m happy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! I really just want these two to be happy...I desperately hope everything works out for them in the new season. Thanks to everyone who read, left kudos, and wrote a review! :)


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